Thesis (Ph.D)--Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: M. Raymond Flannery; Committee Member: Daniel Goldman; Committee Member: Dewey H. Hodges; Committee Member: Li You; Committee Member: Turgay Uzer. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Electron-ion recombination has been under study for many years, but comparisons between theory and experiment have been very difficult, especially for conditions where the ion under evaluation was a minority in concentration. This study describes a direct measurement of the recombination-rate coefficient for the recombination of minority as well as majority ions in the afterglow.

We discuss the role of symmetries in the dissociative recombinations (DR) of three polyatomic ions, namely the linear HCO+ (formyl) ion and the two highly symmetric H+3 and H3O+ (hydronium) molecular ions. Regarding the HCO+ ion, we apply a quantum mechanical treatment using the Multi-channel Quantum Defect Theory (MQDT) formalism to describe the ion-electron scattering process. Our study takes into account the Renner-Teller effect in order to model the non Born-Oppenheimer vibronic coupling in linear polyatomic ions. The coupling has shown to represent the main mechanism responsible for electronic capturing in highly excited Rydberg states associated with excited vibrational levels of the ionic core. We consider all internal degrees of freedom of HCO+ and obtain the dissociative cross section as a function of the incident electron kinetic energy. We have also improved the theoretical approach by including the large permanent dipole moment of HCO+ using a generalization of the MQDT formalism. To our knowledge, this is the rst time the permanent dipole moment of an ion is included in a DR study. The obtained results are in good agreement with experimental data. We also study the DR of H+3 and H3O+ symmetric ions using a simpli ed theoretical treatment, which focuses on the key ingredient of the DR process, the electron capture in the rst excited degenerate vibrational normal mode of the ions through non Born-Oppenheimer Jahn-Teller coupling. For both ions the obtained cross sections are in very good agreement with the available experimental data. Moreover, in the case of H+3 , the results reproduce previous calculations from two independent theoretical studies. Finally, we investigate the role of symmetries in few body ultra-cold collisions by considering both three and four identical atoms systems. We derive allowed rearrangements of different fragments of the system, satisfying the complete symmetry of the molecular Hamiltonian. For that purpose we establish a correspondence between constants of motion of the system in di erent large-distance con gurations and irreducible representations of the total symmetry group. Selection rules (forbidden transitions) and allowed states, which depend on the fermionic or bosonic nature of the atoms, can be derived from these results.

This thesis contains results of electron-ion recombination processes in atomic ions relevant for plasma applications. The measurements were performed at the Stockholm Refrigerated Electron Beam Ion Trap (R-EBIT) and at the CRYRING heavy-ion storage ring. Dielectronic recombination (DR) cross sections, resonant strengths, rate coefficients and energy peak positions in H-like and He-like S are obtained for the first time from the EBIT measurements. Furthermore, the experimentally obtained DR resonant strengths are used to check the behaviour of a scaling formula for low Z, H-and He-like iso-electronic sequences and to update the fitting parameters. KLL DR peak positions for initially He- to B-like Ar ions are obtained experimentally from the EBIT measurements. Both the results from highly charged sulfur and argon are compared with the calculations performed with a distorted wave approximation. Absolute recombination rate coefficients of B-like C, B-like Ne and Be-like F ions are obtained for the first time with high energy resolution from storage ring measurements. The experimental results are compared with the intermediate coupling AUTOSTRUCTURE calculations. Plasma rate coefficients of each of these ions are obtained by convoluting the energy dependent recombination spectra with a Maxwell-Boltzmann energy distribution in the temperature range of 103-106 K. The resulting plasma rate coefficients are presented and compared with the calculated data available in literature. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Accepted. Paper 5: Accepted. Paper 6: Manuscript. Paper 7: Manuscript.</p>

The quantum impulse approximation theory has been extended to the inelastic collision. The total inelastic cross sections for the degenerated states with different angular momenta was calculated. It was proved that summing over the transitions from nl to n' and from nl to n'l' would give us the total cross section of transition from n to n'. Rate coefficients were calculated for the common gases in the atmosphere being the third particle. The resonant effect of the rate coefficients had been observed. Recombination coefficients were then calculated in terms of rate coefficients. Previous calculations were carried out in compare with the net rate flow through certain excited levels, which were found to be more stable and reflected a clearer picture of the whole process. Results have been compared with the elastic collision. A dramatic decreasing of rates when temperature increased was also observed. More thermal energy increases the probability of electrons for being re-ionized. Similar calculations had been carried out for the upper atmosphere gases, such as N₂, O₂, CO, CO₂, and H₂O. The recombination coefficients for electron combining with metallic ion Na+ were also calculated.

Electron-ion recombination and ion-neutral interactions play a piv- otal role in the chemical evolution of molecules in the Interstellar Medium (ISM). Physical conditions under which these processes un- dergo in the ISM include a wide range of temperatures and particle number densities. This work contributes to the experimental study of named low temperature phenomena in the range of 30 K to 300 K focusing on the reactions of hydrogen-containing light molecules. The employed experimental techniques are based on a combination of a Stationary Afterglow (SA) instrument with a Continuous Wave Cavity Ring-down Spectrometer (cw-CRDS). The main contributions of this work can be split into three topics. (1) The proton and deuteron con- taining isotopic system of H3 + ions. The isotopic fractionation process in collisions with hydrogen and deuterium gas was investigated in low temperature discharges, nominal ion temperatures of 80 K to 140 K, to deduce relative ion densities in the experiments. These are necessary for afterglow studies of isotopic effects in electron-ion recombination of the studied ions. (2) Vibrational spectroscopy of N2H+ ions focusing on first overtone (2ν1 band) transitions and ion thermometry, the first step towards studies of electron-ion recombination. (3) The role of para/ortho spin...

<p>Atomic physics plays an important role in determining the evolution stages in a wide range of laboratory and cosmic plasmas. Therefore, the main contribution to our ability to model, infer and control plasma sources is the knowledge of underlying atomic processes. Of particular importance are reliable low temperature dielectronic recombination (DR) rate coefficients.</p><p>This thesis provides systematically calculated DR rate coefficients of lithium-like beryllium and sodium ions via ∆n = 0 doubly excited resonant states. The calculations are based on complex-scaled relativistic many-body perturbation theory in an all-order formulation within the single- and double-excitation coupled-cluster scheme, including radiative corrections.</p><p>Comparison of DR resonance parameters (energy levels, autoionization widths, radiative transition probabilities and strengths) between our theoretical predictions and the heavy-ion storage rings experiments (CRYRING-Stockholm and TSRHeidelberg) shows good agreement.</p><p>The intruder state problem is a principal obstacle for general application of the coupled-cluster formalism on doubly excited states. Thus, we have developed a technique designed to avoid the intruder state problem. It is based on a convenient partitioning of the Hilbert space and reformulation of the conventional set of pairequations. The general aspects of this development are discussed, and the effectiveness of its numerical implementation (within the non-relativistic framework) is selectively illustrated on autoionizing doubly excited states of helium.</p>

Atomic physics plays an important role in determining the evolution stages in a wide range of laboratory and cosmic plasmas. Therefore, the main contribution to our ability to model, infer and control plasma sources is the knowledge of underlying atomic processes. Of particular importance are reliable low temperature dielectronic recombination (DR) rate coefficients. This thesis provides systematically calculated DR rate coefficients of lithium-like beryllium and sodium ions via ∆n = 0 doubly excited resonant states. The calculations are based on complex-scaled relativistic many-body perturbation theory in an all-order formulation within the single- and double-excitation coupled-cluster scheme, including radiative corrections. Comparison of DR resonance parameters (energy levels, autoionization widths, radiative transition probabilities and strengths) between our theoretical predictions and the heavy-ion storage rings experiments (CRYRING-Stockholm and TSRHeidelberg) shows good agreement. The intruder state problem is a principal obstacle for general application of the coupled-cluster formalism on doubly excited states. Thus, we have developed a technique designed to avoid the intruder state problem. It is based on a convenient partitioning of the Hilbert space and reformulation of the conventional set of pairequations. The general aspects of this development are discussed, and the effectiveness of its numerical implementation (within the non-relativistic framework) is selectively illustrated on autoionizing doubly excited states of helium.